Supporters of Douglas County Judge Paula Martin stepped forward Saturday and began a campaign to counter a movement to oust her from the bench.

During a news conference in the office of Lawrence attorney Dan Watkins, a list was released containing 69 names of people with varied backgrounds who are on a committee to retain Martin.

“She’s fair, she’s conscientious and the whole story needs to be told, not just part of it,” Watkins said.

Martin has been a judge since 1994. Before then she was a practicing attorney for more than a dozen years. She is up for retention as a Douglas County judge in the Nov. 2 general election.

Included on the list are 16 of 24 jurors who heard two statutory rape cases handled by Martin and for which she has been criticized for departing from sentencing guidelines and giving lighter sentences to three men convicted in the cases.

Three of the jurors in one of those cases, Joy Krietemeyer, Melissa Loewenstein and Ron Eiler, attended the news conference. All of the jurors who could be contacted thought Martin did the right thing, Watkins said.

“I think that is significant, particularly since they heard all of the evidence,” Watkins said. “The jurors felt very strongly that she should be retained and that her decision was fair.”

Of the jurors in the two cases, phone numbers for six of them couldn’t be found, one had died and another declined to go public because of job considerations, Watkins said.

Last month, the mother of a 13-year-old girl who was a victim in one of the cases and her supporters began the campaign to oust Martin.

Martin departed from state sentencing guidelines, which carry a presumed penalty of at least 13 years in prison for statutory rape in which the victim is too young to consent.

In departing from the guidelines, Martin found that there were “substantial and compelling” reasons to give lighter sentences, including finding that the girl, who was intoxicated at the time, was an “active participant” in the rape and wasn’t harmed as much as some rape victims.

Two 18-year-old men convicted of rape were placed on five years’ probation, 60 days in jail and community service. The third man entered a plea to aggravated indecent liberties with a child and received a similar sentence. A fourth person was sentenced in juvenile court by a different judge.

“If there was any way we could have found him not guilty, we would have,” said Krietemeyer, who along with Eiler and Loewenstein, were jurors on the same case.

“We followed the letter of the law,” Loewenstein said. “We didn’t have any option but to find him guilty. No one had any idea about the severity (the sentence) could have been.”

Alice Lieberman, former chairwoman of the Douglas County Democratic Party, also is on the committee to retain Martin. Lieberman described herself as an acquaintance of Martin’s and one who has followed her cases through news accounts.

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“From what I have seen of her, she is just a sterling judge,” said Lieberman, who also has worked in the field of child welfare.

Watkins is one of three attorneys on the committee, along with Kay Huff and Ed Collister. Watkins and Lieberman noted there were several other attorneys who supported Martin but were not now on the list because they may regularly appear in her courtroom.

Martin was not at the news conference. She is limited in what she can say about cases because of judicial ethics.

“Statutory rape cases involving young men just over 18 years old and girls under 14 years of age present very challenging issues,” Krietemeyer said. “This situation didn’t involve any kind of forcible act or lack of consent as it is commonly understood.”